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Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an irrational Conservative Christian organization devoted to making America a Christian theocracy and take away people's rights. James Dobson founded FotF though Dobson may have been pushed out for being too Right Wing even for them. James Dobson Was Pushed Out Of Focus On The Family, Says Influential Evangelical To make it look better, they claim their primary mission is: To cooperate with the Holy Spirit in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible by nurturing and defending the God-ordained institution of the family and promoting biblical truths worldwide. http://www.focusonthefamily.com/about_us/guiding-principles.aspx. To put that into plain English, they have six "pillars", which they call as follows: #The Preeminence of Evangelism #The Permanence of Marriage #The Value of Children #* Although they call for Corporal Punishment #The Sanctity of Human Life #The Importance of Social Responsibility #The Value of Male and Female The ones that look bad are bad and the ones that look like they're good ideas are misleadingly so. The current CEO is Jim Daly. What the Six Pillars MeanAll quoutes in this section from: http://www.focusonthefamily.com/about_us/guiding-principles.aspx unless otherwise noted. The Preeminence of Evangelism According to Focus on the Family, the whole reason we are on Earth is to "know and glorify God and attain eternal life through Jesus." We are supposed to "reach out to our own families first" and then reach out to a "suffering humanity." Apparently, God must be pretty errr... if he is unwilling to do this himself. The Permenance of Marriage Focus on the Family says on their website that "Marriage is intended by God to be a thriving, lifelong relationship between a man and a woman enduring through trials, sickness, financial crises and emotional stresses."The bolded words are intended to emphasize important stuff and were NOT bolded by Focus on the Family. Like any other evangelical Christian organization, Focus on the Family wish they could bring same-sex marriage down and deny LGBT couples their basic civil rights. Focus on the Family also hates cohabitation and divorce. This can pressure people to stay in unhappy and abusive marriages. Cohabitation supposedly leads to divorce; and then there's the "no sex before marriage" part. Ironically, the divorce rate is highest among conservative Christians and lowest among atheists and agnostics.divorce.lovetoknow.com/Divorce_Statistics_by_Religion The Value Of Children Focus on the Family thinks that "children are a heritage from God and a blessing from His hand. Parents are therefore accountable to Him for raising, shaping and preparing them for a life of service to His Kingdom and to humanity." This basically means families should have more children than what is good for the environment. It also means that families should use child indoctrination to make sure that the children only believe what the parents want them to. The Sanctity of Human Life This is where, in opposition to abortion rights, Focus on the Family begins to hint at their anti-feminist agenda. This is definitely one of the most misleading parts: We believe that human life is created by God in His image. It is of inestimable worth and significance in all its dimensions, including the preborn, the aged, the mentally disabled, those deemed unattractive, the physically challenged, and every other condition in which humanness is expressed from the single cell stage of development to natural death. Christians are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life. In reality, Focus on the Family "cares" about the baby until the day it is born, when "mission is accomplished." Although Focus on the Family itself probably will only interfere if the baby is LGBT; you have to remember that many members are also conservatives who are pro-gun, pro-Iraq war, pro-death penalty and against Universal Health Care. In other words, once the baby is born, they don't care. The Importance of Social Responsibility "We believe that God has ordained the social institutions of family, church, and government for the benefit of mankind and as a reflection of His divine nature." The last part is ironic because conservatives also believe in limited government. However, the next sentence solves all of that: "Christians are called to support these institutions, according to God's design and purpose, and to protect them against destructive social influences." In other words, Focus on the Family wants the American government to force people to follow Conservative Christian rules regardless of whether those they force personally believe in those rules and want limited rights for individuals who disagree with Conservative Christianity. The Value of Male and Female The first part of this condemns homosexuality again (apparently, once was not enough); this time because "God created humans in His image, intentionally male and female, each bringing unique and complementary qualities to sexuality and relationships." This is awful, but in reality it is only sugar-coating: Focus on the Family's website has an article where the words "tomboy" and "sissy-girl" behavior are called "concerning."http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/articles/gender_confusion_in_children.aspx which tells parents to encourage Boys to become traditionally male and Girls to become traditionally female even if a particlual child isn't that way. There's also and an article on "male headship" that encourages women to "recognize your husband's authority."Who's In Charge Here? Focus on the Family is very clearly an anti-feminist organization that frowns upon equality in marriage and women having careers. Other Positions Focus on the Family has other ideas consistent with its wishes to make America a Christian theocracy, including allowing prayer in public schools, and corporal punishment. Political Focus on the Family originally supported Mike Huckabee during the 2008 Presidential Election. Then they supported nobody until Sarah Palin came into the picture. That just shows how conservative they are. Advertising Focus on the Family has run TV commercials during major football games on the cash-strapped CBS. Even Fox Sports wouldn't play these adds. Tim Tebow In 2010, football player and evangelist Tim Tebow made an add with his mother, Pam, and Focus on the Family that aired during the Super Bowl. The advertisement featured Pam talking about how she decided not to abort Tim, who was the fifth child she was pregnant with when she caught dysentery in The Philippines. It was lucky that they both survived, although modern medicine definitely helped. The advertisement ignores all of that. Although it was supposed to be Pam's choice and she is still pro-life, she was in the Phillipines when Tim was born. Abortion is illegal in the Phillipines, even to save the life of the mother, with punishments including prison for both the mother and her health care provider. She could well be over-playing the amount her doctors wanted her to have the abortion; and her story might not be one hundred percent accurate. John 3:16 were unwilling to air it.]] Two years later, another advertisement funded by Focus on the Family aired. This one featured cute children reciting John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son; and all who believe shall not perish but have eternal life." The advertisment adds additional words, including shorts of the children saying "everyone" and "anyone" to refer to who God loved. Although the "all who believe" part apparently disqualifies atheists from this; sixty percent of homosexuals sight their faith as "very important" in their lifehttp://www.christianpost.com/news/survey-explores-christian-faith-of-homosexuals-39313/. Homosexuality Incidentally Focus on the Family has supported the idea of Homosexuality disorder and unethical homosexual treatment like the ex-gay movement and Pure Life Ministries. When the word "everyone" is used without additional information (ie. "Everyone who is heterosexual"), it usually means everyone without strings attached. Focus On The Family promotes the harmful and discredited practice of “conversion therapy,” claiming, “just as there are many paths that may lead a person to experience same-sex attractions, there are likewise multiple ways out.” For years, they were behind Love Won Out, a national tour preaching that same-sex attraction is ‘preventable and treatable.’ In fact, even after the leading national organization promoting “conversion therapy” – Exodus International – shuttered their doors and apologized for the harm they had caused, Focus On The Family continues to endorse junk science rejected by every major medical and mental health organization to this day, blaming molestation, divorce, and straight up “rebellion against societal norms” for people’s sexual orientation. 10 things you should know about Focus On The Family References External links *Focus on the Family Right Wing Watch on Focus on the Family *Focus on the Family RationalWiki on Focus on the Family Category:Evil Category:Things Conservatives Love Category:Things That Are Not Awesome Category:Fundamentalism Category:Christianity Category:American Christians Category:Conservative Tactics Category:Anti-Gay people Category:People Who Want Christian Sharia